Maple Bear Global Schools Ltd.

loading please wait...

What is bilingual education?

Posted in Education on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018

Not surprisingly, this is a question I am often asked.

Bilingual education is the use of two different languages in the classroom instruction of academic content.

That means, in our Maple Bear program model, students study subjects like Portuguese or Chinese in either their native language or English, depending on the subject and grade level. They don’t just memorize vocabulary which is one way it differs from ESL training.

There have been concerns that teaching children two languages at once only confuses them. Fortunately, there has been much research—much of it conducted by Canadians—which shows that far from handicapping children, bilingual education can offer benefits from infancy to old age.

So what are the benefits of bilingual education for young learners?

For a start, it’s very good for English-language development, a goal of many of our parents who chose Maple Bear for their children. But young learners have been shown to have:

• better concentration, analytical skills and multi-tasking;
• they learn to read sooner than monolingual students;
• they have an increased sense of self-worth and identity;
• the ability to live abroad and learn other foreign languages later in life;
• exposure to more than one culture leads to a global perspective.

Finally, numerous studies have shown that being bilingual actually makes a person smarter as it has a profound effect on the brain, improving cognitive skills and sharpening memory.

Rodney Briggs
President
Maple Bear Global Schools

View More Stories...
WHY MAPLE BEAR IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN DURING COVID-19
One of the most worrisome aspects of this COVID-19 pandemic is that it has disrupted education for the majority of children across the globe. Many of our Maple Bear students…
A Parent’s Guide to Play
Play in the Maple Bear Early Childhood Programs All Maple Bear Early Childhood programs emphasize play and play-based learning as a critical component. Whether the children are learning language, developing…
Playing and learning with your children
Play is good for everyone. At Maple Bear, play is part of our pedagogical foundation and we recommend that play (for children and adults) becomes an essential part of every…
How Will Maple Bear Address Learning Gaps in Our Students?
At Maple Bear, our teachers often get asked by worried parents: “How will you cover all the content knowledge that children have missed?" This is a valid question during an…